From Eliyahu

Hello friends,

Who is the ultimate authority?

Authority is a very big issue because people do not agree on who is the ultimate authority.

For example, for people who live in the USA: is Congress, or the United Nations, the higher ranking authority? This question elicits very different answers, depending on whom you ask. The outcome to this question will have a lot to do with the whole direction of the world over the next decade or so.

What about religious authority figures? Is the Dalai Lama, the Pope, the Grand Mufti, the President of the NEA, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, or some other religious leader, the top religious authority in the world? Does it matter? Historically, a lot of blood has been spilled over this. It matters to billions.

How about in the family? Are family members equal in authority? Really? The two year old is equal in authority to his mom? If so, prepare to be eating way too much candy and ice cream! Actually, nature makes it obvious that mom is in charge of her child. But does that make her in charge of her husband too? Could it be the other way around, as it was for nearly 6000 years until modern feminism? Who is the final authority in the family? Oh, right, now-a-days its the divorce court, and the state is king. At least, that's how many perceive it.

One thing most every authority figure seems to have in common is the determination to hold on to that authority as long as possible, whether that authority is legitimate or not. Corrupt leaders and regimes are especially noted through history for holding onto power long after all legitimacy has waned. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and Mao Zedong are a few examples from the twentieth century. Consider, for example, the reign of Mao in China:

"Critics consider him a dictator comparable to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, who damaged traditional Chinese culture, as well as a perpetrator of human rights abuses, and they estimate that Mao was responsible for 40 to 70 million deaths through starvation, prison labour and executions, which would rank his tenure as the top incidence of excess mortality in human history." [Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong]

One reason corrupt regimes hold onto their power so long is because they know that if they were to step down, they would soon be accountable for their crimes, as these would then become known to the people, and the people would demand justice. Fearing that day of reckoning, they keep heaping up greater crimes against their people in their effort to hold on to their power, all the while deceptively claiming the moral high ground.

These lessons of history should inform us as we approach the historical record found in the gospels. On this level, the narrative of Matthew reveals a corrupt religious power structure (the "chief priests and the Pharisees") holding onto their power through alliance with the regime of a corrupt king, within the larger scope of a corrupt Roman empire. Indeed, corruption and oppression were everywhere, with even the Temple being perverted into an instrument of robbery by the system. All who cooperated with the evil system shared in the plunder. Those who opposed the institutionalized larceny were marginalized or even eliminated. The elite and illicit marriage of religion, commerce and politics at the center of this narrative has repeated itself innumerable times throughout history, but with one very big difference: The nation we are talking about here is in a covenant relationship with the Creator of the universe.

So, who had the greater authority, the system with all the swords or the Creator of the world in covenant with His nation? Into this contest of authority the Creator sent His Son to be His champion, and ours: Y'shua Messiah, the only rightful King!   

In Matthew 21 we see this contest of authority getting under way in full force. This is an amazing spectacle to behold! At our Tsiyon meeting online tonight we are focusing on these events and the contest of authority behind them. Join us at 8 PM CST at Tsiyon.Net. This is not dead history. It is now happening again.

Shalom,

Eliyahu ben David
Tsiyon.Org

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